Things were looking bleak for the AHL club of Manitoba the last time they were in Winnipeg. They were leaving on an extended road trip mired in an 11 game (0-10-1) losing streak which made the playoffs seem very unlikely. They left Manitoba for Rockford on January 26th which was the start of nine games on the road although that was split roughly in half by the AHL All-Star break which saw them play five games against the Central, followed by a few days off, before resuming the roadie with four games which concluded against the Wranglers on Wednesday night. They seemingly flipped the script and went 6-2-1 which put them back into the playoff conversation.
The last time they practiced in Winnipeg was back on January 25th so this will be the first skate in some time. Since we last saw them they’ve had Axel Jonsson-Fjallby and Dominic Toninato pass through waivers and returned on loan to them. As well the Jets took David Gustafsson off IR (where he had been retroactive to December 22nd) and sent him to the Moose for conditioning purposes (which can least up to two weeks). He played his first AHL game on Wednesday since May of 2022 (the final game of their first round playoff series with the Admirals).
A big part of turning things around was the play of Jets goalie prospect Thomas Milic who ended up playing six of the nine games during this trip going 4-1-1.
Pre-skate news:
The Moose announced that they had reassigned netminder Oskari Salminen to the Norfolk Admirals of the ECHL as he works to get his game back.
Skate news:
It was originally slated for 10:30 AM but moved to noon. About 30 minutes before it got formally underway Thomas Milic was out warming up followed quickly by Collin Delia. Everyone was present and accounted for this afternoon. Moose ended practice singing happy birthday to Jets prospect Nikita Chibrikov who turns 21 today.
Lines:
Malott – Lambert – Chibrikov
Toninato – Gustafsson – AJF
Viel – Reichel – Ford
Bongiovanni – Zhilkin – Torgersson
Suess – Nikkanen – Jones
Players video:
Chat with Kyle Capobianco runs until 2:57
Chat with Nikita Chibrikov runs from 2:58 until the end.
Coach video:
Up next:
The Moose are back in action tomorrow afternoon for Chaz Lucius bobblehead against a very tough Admirals team who have yet to lose a game in 2024 (15-0-0-0). Puck drop is at 2 PM CST.
